S7, Ep 6: Meet the Masters: Bobbin the Hood 2025 and the Art of Fly Tying

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. On this episode, Mike Schultz and Greg Senyu drop in to update us on all things Bobbin 2025.

This angler first tying event will be February 1st and 2nd at Schultz Outfitters in the Ypsilanti Freight House. Stay tuned for all the details for this great weekend. But before we get to the interview, just a reminder.

If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating and review in the podcaster of your choice. It really helps us out. Now, onto our interview. Well, guys, welcome back to the Articulate Fly.

Thanks, man. Thanks for having us.

Yeah, looking forward to it. And, you know, guess we kind of have to start off, you know, how was your 2024 fishing season?

2024 was good. We had good water and a lot of clients.

You know, things grew quite a bit during COVID and kind of have continued to keep the same pattern of go fishing with us once and you're going to continue to go fishing with us. So, yeah, guide stayed busy, I stayed busy. A lot of big fish were caught. And yeah, it was a good year.

Yeah. And, Greg, I've been watching you on Instagram. You've got all kinds of stuff coming out with Montana Fly Company.

And you want to tell folks a little bit about what you got in the works.

Not. Not all of it, not for sure, but I mean, I'm pretty excited about it. We're gonna.

We're gonna have a lot of really cool new stuff to tie with, especially going into this year, next year. But everybody will get a. A sneak peek and an opportunity. Opportunity to. To see and tie with the. The new shadow fibers.

So you'll kind of have to be here, kind of have to be at Bobbin to. To see and be able to play with that. But I think. I think fly tires in the Midwest are going to be pretty excited about it.

Very, very. Nate and Mike, I know you guys are always mixing stuff up in the shop. What's been going on in the store?

Yeah, well, if you want to keep going on that Montana Fly deal, I mean, that the new stuff Greg developed, you know, everything from that satin chenille to the dirty bird dub that's been very well received and definitely been taking that new stuff and kind of replacing some of the old materials that have been around for years with some of the stuff that Greg whipped up. And it's never a bad idea to show the fish something a little bit different.

So whether it's, you know, going from something that might be a shiny body material to something that's a matte or, you know, replacing, you know, collars that might have been made out of feathers, such as schlopping or rooster saddle with, you know, dirty bird or doing heads on stuff. For our cold weather fishing, when the water is really, really cold and the fish are real lethargic, having that kind of motion without movement.

And plug in those new materials that Greg came up with into proven patterns. That's been super fun. Um, so yeah, man, fly tying always evolving. Schultz Outfitter is always evolving.

And obviously Greg pushing the envelope with the materials, you know, helps us kind of keep the, keep the train rolling and keep things fresh.

Yeah, I always say there are very, very few places that I would trust to ship me particularly natural stuff sight unseen. And your shop is definitely one of those.

Definitely. You know, it really helps to have a staff full of, you know, anglers first.

I guess we could say that, understand, you know, what we're trying to accomplish and, you know, understand the importance of qualities of materials and, you know, you can always trust us to pick out the best stuff. And if we, the few times that it just doesn't make the cut, we're not gonna, we're not gonna ship you garbage.

Yeah. And speaking about, you know, people that really fish, I mean, you guys got Bob in the hood coming up.

You know, know, Greg, you want to kind of let us know kind of the genesis for the event. Where did the idea come from?

I came from Mike. I mean, that, that guy's got. Got ideas for days.

I mean, what I really like about this is, is we really get to highlight the really, really talented fly tires of the region. And not to mention, like, these are full time people in the industry. We're like kind of highlighting people that made.

Made these fisheries popular, you know, work on these fisheries every day.

And for me just to get to hang out with that, that kind of group of people, you know, even as a host, even being your host, like, it's, it's pretty rad to, to be able to spend a space.

It used to be like that back in the old days, you know, but shows got stale and like, this gives us that feel of like what it used to be like to, to go to the big show.

To answer your question there, you know, the whole concept of Bob and yeah, it came from just seeing how, you know, the traditional shows have kind of started to get a little bit stale and you can start to see these, you know, the icons of our sport, you know, of Fly fishing and fly tying getting older, unfortunately, some of them passing away, you know, and with, with social media, the way things have gone, I think, you know, we all know that, like, if you wanted to learn the newest stuff, the stuff that the guys are actually fishing at that time, you had to go to those shows.

You had to be there and see what, you know, Flash Feenster was using this year or, you know, the style that certain guys were cutting heads or the materials that they were sourcing and all that cool stuff that came from shows.

And unfortunately, nowadays a lot of the social media channels and YouTube and whatnot is just regurgitated stuff that, you know, they're seeing from those, those, those tires and, you know, people are tying it and, you know, I'm not saying they're calling it their own, but you know, what, what Joe Schmo that works five days a week or six days a week at wherever, you know, the fish is one day, two days, three days a month, the information he's going to be giving you or she's going to be giving you is a lot different than someone that's rowing a boat or fishing 25, 30 days a month, 200 plus days a year.

So my vision with the show was to bring together not only fly tires, but designers, anglers first that have firsthand knowledge and are able to share with you, you know, their experiences and again, their firsthand knowledge. So small setting was, was one of my goals. I didn't want this to be a, you know, some of these shows around here, they get 20,000 people.

Some of the fly shows get 5,000 people coming through.

I wanted it to be something that was somewhat intimate, where you could sit down, you could speak with the tires, with the designers, watch them, you know, cut the head, watch them wrap the material, watch them build the template, watch them choose specific hooks, and then also give you the reason why they chose that particular design or whatnot. So Bobbin gives us that opportunity to do that, recognize some of the true talent in our area and beyond.

There's a bunch of guys flying in this year and kind of how we've built this and, you know, moved on from year one to year two to year three. A lot of these anglers that come through recommendations, you know, they're not, you know, a hundred thousand follower, you know, type people.

Some of them, they're small, but they have the respect of their peers and the respect of the industry.

You know, might not be jumping up and down telling everybody about it on the interwebs, but they truly are the OGs, the innovators, the designers and the people that we want to spend time with.

And we want our customers to be exposed to them so they can learn how to do things the right way and learn from people that learned it by putting in the hard work.

Yeah. Very, very neat. And so for folks that aren't familiar, you want to give us kind of a general kind of overview of the format of the event.

Yeah. So this year we're going to add Friday night to it. So Friday night will kind of be like a meet and greet here at the shop.

Charlie Craven will be here, Blaine's going to be here, Doug McKnight's going to be here. Just kind of hanging out, shooting the and I think Charlie's going to do a little demo, a little presentation.

So if you guys don't know Charlie Craven is you head out from under that rock because he's been around forever. And it's definitely contributed to the, the knowledge base and fly tying for many, many years. So that'll be kind of the, the opening night.

We'll get the place all set up, which is about 200 yards, 150 yards from the, from the shop. It's called the Yani Freight House. Old historic building, really cool. Right on the railroad tracks.

We'll set that up and then Saturday will be a show. We cap the the event at 200 attendees. It's like I said, mall, it's intimate. Not everybody is there at the same time.

People kind of flow in and out, go to the shop, go get something to eat, grab a drink, whatnot. So it's not over overly packed.

But that will run from 10am to 5pm Breakdown will begin right away right at 505 will be taking that place apart and immediately everyone will move over to the shop. There'll be some giveaways going on. There'll be an after party, there'll be food, there'll be drinks.

Got a bunch of cool sponsors this year that are going to be giving away stuff, everything from yeti products to Turtle boxes. Dakt is going to step up big this year. Our buddy Rory from DAX coming to town.

He's going to do the cooking for the talent and the staff and we'll be giving away deck products. Renzetti, Regal, Dyna King spoke with Lily this morning and they're all going to step up and do some giveaways. So that'll be Saturday night.

Usually that goes pretty late, as you know, last year. And then Sunday morning we'll get right back at it. Same place Right across the street at the freight house.

Classes will start at 9:00 and they'll be staggered. There's classes that go 9 to noon, there's classes that go 12:30 to 2:30 and so on and so on all the way until 5:00 and 5:00, it's over, man.

So, yeah, it's a, it's a little quick marathon.

A lot of fun, a lot of chatting, a lot of catching up with old friends and learning new tips and tricks and seeing what everyone's got up their sleeve for the 2025 season.

Yeah, it's neat. And there's some good Bloody Mary bars close by, which kind of makes Sunday morning work a little bit better, right?

No doubt, man. There's always stuff going on downtown here.

Yeah. And so, you know, Senya, you've been telling me you guys are always tweaking stuff.

You know, what are some of the new things I know you planned some kind of new outdoor stuff. You want to let folks know kind of the things if they were there last year, they're going to be different this year.

New, new things that bobbin. Obviously there's, there's some new tires that we're, we're really happy to, to see join the cast.

I know you're gonna see some, some really good dry flies with, with Ann Miller. You know, she, she's joined the cast.

You know, I'm excited to see like Ben, Wally and those guys that, that are from the east coast that, you know, kind of have that Popovich feel, you know, especially with him not being around anymore. So that's, that's some, definitely some new stuff that you're gonna see and, and yeah, I mean it's going to be a busy, busy weekend.

And like, I don't know, you, you were here last year. Like it, it don't, it starts and it don't stop until it's done. So there's, there's always something going to be going on.

One of the really cool things too is in the store.

We're going to have some of the, you know, they might not be like full time in the industry, but they're like some pretty hot tires and they have got good technique and they do a really, really good job.

So we got like a hot seat going on in store where we're going to have some extra demos and, and some extra demonstrations and stuff going from, from some guys from Cleveland, some guys right here in Michigan and pretty excited to have them join the fold and have that, that next offering.

Very Very neat. You know, Mike, you mentioned Charlie and you know, God, you would have to be under a rock not to know who he is.

But you know, why don't you let folks know the other head stuff?

Yeah. So obviously we got Blaine. He's a three year headliner, good friend of ours at the shop.

Been super supportive of everything I've had going on since we met way back in the day out Somerset when Greg and I used to run out there through snow and ice and everything else. We make that drive in my old Tahoe back in the day. But yeah, Blaine's one of our, my close friends. Talked to him a lot.

And I know you're, you're tight with him as well, so he can't not have blame. He'll be here with all his new stuff from the chocolate factory and rolling out his, his mad creations. We all know the game changer.

But as you know, he's got some absolutely wild stuff. He's doing a class that's going to be a mouse and a frog, which is something a little bit different than what he's done in the past. So.

Looking forward to that. Doug McKnight has been somebody that I've looked up to for a number of years looking at his flies.

I used to run trips down to the Bahamas every year before the lodge got wiped out by the hurricane. And Doug's patterns were always a staple in my box and my clients boxes.

And of course when you travel you see them in the guides boxes down there and wherever you're traveling, Mexico, Belize or, or the Bahamas. But yeah, Doug McKnight, you know, one of those quiet guys on social media.

He's not jumping up and down, but he's one of the true OGs, a guide, a professional fly tire. He ties commercially all winter to kind of make ends meet.

And he's highly sought after by some of the best permanent anglers and permit guides around the world for his patterns. And we're hoping to do a little bit of chatting with him to see kind of some under the hood stuff. But he has a saltwater class.

And Doug, you know, he's a trout guy. He's from pa, so he originally, you know, was into trout fish and he still is.

He still guides for trout, but he's got some really cool foam patterns, you know, and as you know, not all flies are created equal. So the one you buy out of the bin is a lot different than the one that you could be tying yourself.

And you know, everything from, you know, dubbing that has a little bit of weight in it to doing tricks with foam where you're taking materials away to make that fly ride a little bit easier and as Doug says, make it a little more gulpable.

So, yeah, really excited to see what Doug's got up his sleeve because he's not the kind of guy that's sharing a ton of stuff, making videos and doing all that stuff. Definitely wouldn't be. You know, I don't think he'd ever call himself an influencer, but he influences the influencers, I guess you could say.

So I'm still to see Doug and, and, and see his, his cool stuff and, you know, and then obviously, Charlie, you know, Greg's been. We both have been a fan of Charlie for years, but when we, we started talking about planning for 20, 25, Bob and Greg's like, I'm getting Charlie.

We're getting Charlie. I'm gonna call. We're gonna make it happen.

Charlie's a boss, and I, I'm so excited to have Charlie here.

Yeah, it's gonna be neat, right? And then you've got what you've got probably. I mean, a who's who. You got another 30 tires, right? Give or take, right?

Yeah, there's 35 tires total.

You know, I threw in a few other ones this year that are just kind of like OGs of Michigan, you know, like one of my favorite just guys in the industry that I've been chatting with for years, Jerry Regan. He's like a fourth or fifth generation, you know, Grayling, you know, fly tire and former guide. Jerry's just an absolute jewel, a gem.

Just he can sit there and, and talk with anybody and share his, his knowledge of not only fly tying, but the Manistee and the ensemble and that whole Grayling history. And, you know, he'll tell you the truth. You know, he's kind of that guy that, you know, he'll. He'll.

He'll call bullshit on stuff and he'll tell you what really happened because he was there or his dad was there or his grandpa was there or his great grandpa was there. So I know Greg doesn't know. Doesn't know Jerry very well, but Greg and Jerry are gonna, Gonna have a conversation for sure, and Greg's gonna love it.

Ann Miller, as. As Greg mentioned and is a Michigan. A woman from Michigan who has written a book on mayflies of Michigan.

She's an accomplished angler, great caster, has a good reputation. I don't know Anne super well, but I know a lot of people that know her really well. And Respect her. So she got the knob this year.

Lance Nelson, who works up on for Gates a sabo lodge, just a sick fly tire. He's gonna be doing dry fly stuff. Younger guy, probably, you know, younger than me, but Lance is a stud. Trying to think who else we got.

Greg, we got rich Strollos making the drive from Connecticut to pound the tables. You know, we got a really nice trout influence this year from east coast to west coast.

So like the opportunity to, you know, hang out with the Midwest greats, see the east coast guys, see the west coast guys, see the.

And kinda, I mean, as you can imagine, my favorite thing with, with shows like this is not only is it like, like you said, the networking, it's just an opportunity. Like it's face to face. It's not, it's not what you get on the Internet. It's not what you get on your phone. It's not that kind of craving.

It's like you're getting real information from real people and it's, it's refreshing and I think it's, I think it's important that we still have shows like this and that's why we put so much effort into it.

Yeah, I think it's neat too, right, because you guys have kind of beefed up your classes too. So I'm seeing like demos and classes.

I think I saw something on your Instagram feed like with Fletcher Sams, I mean you've got more class offerings on Sunday than you did last year.

Yep, yep. And we're still looking to fill some of those. So if you're down to support and come hang out, you know, that would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, Fletcher is a gem too.

Great human, great tire, you know, takes platforms that, you know, like Blaine's platform and some other, you know, swim fly tires and just takes them to the next level.

Like is the way he thinks and his knowledge of the, the local forage on his rivers and colors and blending and all that stuff, it's just, it's next level, I think. You know, we, we offered to have him up here last year. Not a lot of people knew who Fletcher was.

He's not jumping up and down on the Internet and selling his flies or selling other people's flies.

He's just being himself and fishing his ass off and tying and tweaking and doing really cool, neat stuff for a variety of species down there in Georgia.

But yeah, to have Fletcher sit down and teach some of the stuff he's doing in a two and a half hour class that the clients were trying to, you know, know, potentially would be tying along with him is a recipe for disaster because he's, he's, he's an artist, you know, and it would just be, it would take too much time. So that kind of, you know, triggered the idea of let's do some deminars.

Let's do some stuff where you can sit down with a notebook, you can sit down with your phone and record, you know, Fletcher and Ben talking and they'll share their knowledge and you can take that stuff back and apply it to your local fisheries and your, your tying and, and whatnot. So really excited to see how that all shakes out. Those classes are obviously less expensive at 50 bucks, but they'll be capped at 10.

It'll be a small group and Fletcher and Ben will be laying it out for you guys on Sunday.

Very neat. And I'll get each of you to answer this. We'll start with you, Mike. This is obviously something you want to grow and have evolved over the years.

What's your vision for Bobbin?

Yeah, I would like to keep rolling it the way that it's rolling. I mean, eventually we potentially could have to move to a little bit bigger venue. We're kind of capped.

You know, we get a lot of requests to tie at Bob and people reach out, hey, I want to come, I want to be part of it, you know, and we're pretty, pretty loyal group here, you know, stick with our, our buddies and the people that we feel get along well with others. I mean that's kind of the biggest thing. If you're a pain in the ass, you're not going to be here.

So, you know, these guys are willing to share and you know, I think a lot of it has to do with the being willing to share your knowledge and for the greater good of the collective knowledge of, of, of the industry and of the community of anglers, you know.

So obviously we're not getting any younger and there's going to be new guys coming up and if you're a guide, if you're a full time shop employee, if you're a, you know, an outfitter or whatever and you fit into the, the kind of ideal person for this event, then you're going to get the nod, you know. So yeah, I'd like to continue to do what we're doing, keep the support of the companies.

You know, obviously the more revenue we generate that gets distributed amongst the tires and whatnot. This isn't a big money grab. We got to pay for hotels, we got to pay for food, we Got to play for airplane tickets, we got to pay for the venue.

You know, we count on the, the people that are coming to the show to support us by purchasing products at the shop and, and continue to keep the, keep the shop rolling in the right direction. So, yeah, I will be doing it again in 2026. There's no doubt. Yeah.

And so Greg, what do you, how do you want to see Bob and evolve?

Well, I mean, I mean, let's be honest, like, the only one that's really a pain in the ass is probably me. I think I give everybody a hard time. I just don't know how to do anything otherwise.

But like, I, I just want to see Bob and grow in the same direction. It's growing. Like, it's like Mike said, it's the, the people working hard to be there. It's kind of, it's kind of refreshing.

Like, and you know, you've been there, you, you've had conversation with the, with the people there.

It's like there's a, there's a different feel and a different willingness and, and as always, like, we're always going to find a new idea or a new way to make it more exciting.

I mean, the whole point of doing events, you know, is for the customer and you know, to, to like, you know, we, we hold a pretty high standard on how we look at our customer service and how we treat our customers and those kind of things. And I think they expect more from us. That's why people call us from all over. We don't even have an online store yet.

And the amount of calls and business we take, it's just a true testament to the staff's character here.

I just want to hold that identity, that Schultz Outfitter identity, that we're willing to work harder, we're willing to push envelopes, we're willing to be adventurous. And anything we do with Bobman would be a benefit for our customers and also for the people involved.

It's like I said, it's an opportunity for us all to get together and a lot of like minded people, so a lot of information sharing which is good for, you know, the future of fly fishing, at least in this region. So, yeah, that's, that's the way I see this. Like, you know, who knows, maybe we'll have a band, a carnival, a popcorn machine. I don't know.

I don't know. What do you think, Mike?

Possibilities are endless. I think a wrestling ring would be an octagon. You know, entertaining.

Yeah, there you go. Or we could do, do A half court hockey right in the back.

There you go.

Yeah. You know, and I would say, I mean, you know, I've interviewed, you know, you guys, I've interviewed a lot of people kind of related to the shop.

And you guys do have an incredibly special community around Schultz Outfitters. And it's really evident. And you know, it's just like, you know, I know you've got your whiting drops of what is it every third Wednesday, right.

You know, and like, like Seno said, you don't even have your E commerce store up and I mean people are flocking to you guys.

And you know Mike, if people want to get more information about Bobbin time is getting short but you know, and they want to buy tickets and you might have, you have like that second tier of tickets or there's still some tickets available. But like where should folks go and get info and stuff?

Yeah, so Yeti sent us way more water bottles than we ever imagined. So we're getting to kind of the end of those tickets. Those tickets are 75 bucks and they include the thing. I think it's a 26 ounce, 36 ounce rambler.

I can't remember which size it is but it's like a $40 bottle says Bob in the hood on the outside of it, you know, laser engraved. So there's a few of those left. And then those are at 75 bucks pop.

And then when those disappear, just like we did last year, we'll roll out general admission tickets and we're looking to, to sell out at a couple hundred people. And how do you, how do you get those tickets?

You just simply give us a call at the shop 734-544-1761 and you're gonna get someone that's gonna pick up. That's a tire and it's an angler. You can chop it up with them on the phone, get you all set up there.

And then on the week leading up to Bobbin we'll be giving, handing out wristbands that'll help you get in the door over there. And if you are not able to make it to the shop before the event we'll be handing out wristbands the morning of right here at the shop.

Probably starting around 8:30, 9:00. Doors will open over there at 10 and then goodie bags.

If you're one of the first 100 ticket holders, goodie bags will be picked up around 3:00 at the shop on show day. And for some odd reason you can't make it. We'll hide your goodie bag in the office and you can pick it up at a later date.

So, yeah, that's how you get them. Man, that's pretty, pretty old school.

If you have a card on file with us, you can always just email us or most of the guys have a lot of the clients in their phones. So text your favorite Schultz Outfitters employee and if you have a card on file, and we'll get that ran, get you on the list.

And then Greg and I are planning on putting the finishing touches on a Bobbin Experience email tomorrow that will go out to the current ticket holders. And then as you purchase your ticket, if it's after that initial release of that email, you'll get it.

But it's not going to be an email that's going to be floating around all over the Internet. It's going to be something specifically for the ticket holders that's going to give you everything you need to know.

Where to park, where to pick up your bag, where to get your wristband, where we recommend you go grab some chow. You know, what's up at the after party and the giveaways, and you name it. Hotel link. So we have a show hotel.

You get a discount at a room over there, and it's about a mile and a half from here. So a whole bunch of information that's just too much to just give it all to you right now.

But you get a nice condensed email with all that stuff in it with links and whatnot to make your experience the most it could possibly be. So we have, we have people coming from town, out of town that are going to be here Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday.

So if you're staying at the show hotel, I'm sure there'll be something going down over there, and I'm sure you'll be able to catch a ride to and from if you, if you have too many wobbly pops while you're hanging out here.

Yeah, there you go.

And so, you know, guys, when this, when the dust settles from Bobbin, you know, what else have you got kind of, you know, teed up for 20, 25, you want to let folks know about.

Yeah, I mean, we just, we're rolling classes. There's classes going on two, three a week.

We could pretty much grind on that all the way through beginning of April, and then it's all fishing around here after that. But one more big show, which is the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo there in March. We'll have our 13th anniversary season kickoff coming up.

That first Weekend in March here at the shop, you know, rolling into demo days, first weekend in June and so on and so on. It never ends here. We're always keep it going, always spreading the, spreading the knowledge.

And you know, education has been the foundation of our, our business since day one. And you know, we just like to keep people on the up and up and if you have success on the water, we're probably going to have success at the shop.

So get you out there, get you fishing, get you catching fish, spreading the good word and keep things rolling here on the shop front.

Yeah. And so anything else you want to share with our listeners before I let you guys get back to preparations?

Got anything, Greg?

I'm in good shape, big dog. How about you?

I'm pretty good, man. Pretty good. Yeah. You want to know exactly what's going on with Bobbin and everything at the shop, just give us a follow on Instagram.

Pretty aggressive there, Nick.

Nick Meinsinger, our media guy, he's always keeping the stories fresh and posts fresh and definitely putting a stronger emphasis and effort into our YouTube channel and bringing you original content from the stuff that's coming out of this shop. The OG stuff from the OGs that tied it, you know, and designed it so you don't have to, you don't have to sift through all the BS online.

You can get it from the source. So that's, that's new. And then yeah, man, just plugging away on getting inventory dialed in and rolling into that e commerce realm. It's.

But if you have as much stuff going on as we do, it's, it's not the easiest thing to get off the ground.

But we're, we are working our way towards that and hope to have that up this year to make it a little bit easier for those people that don't want to come to the shop or talk to someone on the phone, just click and purchase kind of person. So, you know, like I always say, well, what kind of customer is a Built Outfitters customer?

Yeah, we have our ideal customer, but all are welcome and we're more than happy to service you and give you top level customer service and know how that we've built our reputation on.

Got it. Well, listen guys, I really appreciate you making the time and I'll see you in a couple weeks.

Thanks, Marvin. Appreciate you.

Sounds good, man.

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed that as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. I hope to see you guys at Bobbin in a couple of weeks. Tight lines, everybody.